INDIANAPOLIS (May 5, 2021) – For the first time in program history, Oklahoma Christian's softball team sat atop the NCAA Division II South Central Region ranking issued Wednesday, a sign that the Eagles likely will make the NCAA tournament field when it's announced later this month.

OC (34-6) closed out the regular season on Tuesday with a doubleheader sweep of a powerful Texas-Tyler squad that sat at No. 3 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association's Division II poll. Texas-Tyler won the Lone Star Conference regular-season title but is ineligible for the NCAA postseason, as the school is in its final season of transition into Division II.

For the first two sets of NCAA regional rankings, issued the past two Wednesdays, teams were listed simply as "under consideration" for the NCAA postseason. This week's rankings were the first to be listed in rank order and the last ones before the field for the Division II tournament will be announced on May 16.

Six teams will be selected to play in the Division II South Central Regional tournament, which will be hosted by Texas A&M-Commerce – the LSC tournament champion, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament champion and four at-large selections.

OC will host the LSC tournament from May 13-15 at Tom Heath Field. The 10-team, single-elimination format means no team will take more than one extra loss while battling for a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Following OC in the regional ranking were Angelo State (Texas) (31-11), Texas A&M-Commerce (25-14), West Texas A&M (30-10), Colorado Mesa (34-2), Texas A&M-Kingsville (22-10), Texas A&M International (24-17) and Lubbock Christian (Texas) (27-16). Against that group of teams, OC has an 11-1 record this season, with the only loss coming in a doubleheader split against Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Before this year, OC appeared in the regional rankings only once, when the Eagles earned an automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA tournament as the winner of the Heartland Conference Championship tournament. OC was given the No. 8 (lowest) seed in the bracket that season but ended up knocking off two highly regarded opponents en route to a regional title game.